On a Mission to Prevent English Teacher Burnout

If you’ve been reading the blog for a while, you know the spring semester around here means 20Time, a passion project where students spend 20% of class time for 12 weeks working on an individual plan approved by their peers. (A whole bunch of free materials, including handouts, to explain the project can be found here.)

One of the cornerstones of the program is that the teacher also completes a 20Time project, serving as the ultimate model for our students. It’s my fourth year using the project and this time around I made a video to announce the plan:

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Hi Laura! Just entering semester #5 with 20Time! I’ve met with varying success in my own 20Time projects over the last few years, and I’ve learned that to actually accomplish it, I must be, well…passionate about my passion project! I have also recognized that my life being a shade of crazy can be a factor- 2 kids, a husband, a house, a cat, a dog, 100 students, and on and on. So my project this year is to practice all kinds of relaxation techniques, from mediation to coloring, yoga to music therapy, and see what works! Thank you for all the inspiration!

This is my 3rd year doing a Passion Project. I actually planned and implemented it for the same reason as you. (Of course, I found your materials AFTER it was over…..) . My students would stare at me, waiting to take notes on whatever I said, and worrying about how to spit those words back at me on a test. It was frustrating me. I gave my kids an interest inventory, all about them, and they struggled with it so much! Anyway, that year, my thought was to learn a new instrument. I went to the music department, and they gave me a bass clarinet and the music for the musical that was in 6 weeks. This year, my plan is to learn how to make “fancy” materials for my class. My assignment sheets are all so boring, but I’ve never taken the time to learn how to make them eye-catching. Your materials have inspired me to try. Thanks for the inspiration!

Glad I can serve as some sort of inspiration, Sunnie. That school musical performance must’ve been awesome! It’s funny, but my highest academic achievers are usually the ones who struggle the most at first with this project. It’s as if they’ve been trained to follow directions but can’t really carve their own path. My kids who earn C’s in our regular class work tend to produce some of the greatest projects. Go figure. Have fun with your new design project! 🙂

I’ve been using your 20Time project in my classroom with my 7th Grade English students. It’s been a big success!! My students have learned so much on their own and have written blog posts documenting their learning. Thank you so very much for sharing the 20 Time materials on your website. I went looking for the motivational speaker that you referenced because the message seemed familiar. I believe you were listening to Les Brown’s “Live Full, Die Empty” presentation. Just putting it here in case others are interested in listening to it.

YES, Therease, you found him!!! I’m so happy right now! Les Brown, referencing the teachings of Dr. Howard Thurman, totally grabbed me with that image of my unrealized ideas glaring at me with “large angry eyes” on my deathbed. If anyone needs to ignite an internal fire, give this a listen (01:39-04:15 is the part I can’t let go of):

Also, I’m thrilled that your 7th graders are enjoying their 20Time experience. I’ve often wondered if the program works as well with the middle grades. Good to hear this feedback. Let’s both have a great 20Time2018!

I’ve wanted to implement this project for several years now, and finally sat down this summer and reorganized my schedule so that it would fit into my Freshmen English class. My students and I are in the 3rd week of our FIRST 20Time, and I have a few questions. With students who seem to be taking the project too lightly or just cannot seem to get the wheels turning, do you let them sink or swim, or do you give more guidance? How much is too much “interference”? I’m having difficultly finding the balance. Additionally, aside from the planning tickets, do you use any mid-project progress measure?

Many of my students have embraced the project (and I’m having a BLAST learning to crochet…to my husband’s amazement and amusement), but I still have some stragglers “treading water” each Friday? Is this normal?

Hey Andrea,
Congratulations on taking the plunge! The same thing happens to me with every round of 20Time, too. There’s always a few who flounder or need more of my attention during our work sessions than others. During our sessions, I’m constantly walking around the room, stopping to have a chat/look over shoulders/brainstorm ways to work around road blocks.

Definitely don’t let the early strugglers sink/just sit there and accomplish nothing. Some of my chuckleheads need a l-o-t of monitoring and hand-holding for the first half of the project until they get some traction. Totally normal. Also, the thing about 20Time is that, just like all things we do in class, it’s not going to be the perfect project for every kid. Some will thrive and others will sputter – it sort of mirrors real-life in that way.

My recommendation is to just use your best judgment. You know your kids pretty well by now and I’m guessing you know which kids need more of your time and more of your help with direction than others. Hope this helps! And congratulations on your new crocheting skills, by the way. I’ll bet that’s a great mental escape after a week with our teens. 🙂

Laura, I really want to do this with my Junior & Senior Lit & Comp class, but not sure about the 12 weeks. We are in the middle of a novel right now. How do I start it in the middle of the novel? How much introduction time do I need? How do I introduce it to my students? Any suggestions? I have not gone back and read your blogs; I have downloaded the information from Teacher’s Pay Teachers and read through it. Help; if we are going to do it I need to start it now…

Hey, Shannon! You can start anytime, really. Just take a half day off from the novel to intro. the project and explain everything. Then, find a natural pausing spot in the novel for your Guppy Tanks presentations.

One of my years, I had to shorten the work sessions to just nine instead of 12 and everything still worked. You will need some start-up time, though, to explain the project and have students present the 90-second Guppy Tank speeches/peer voting, so you’ll need to carve out a few early-February days, for sure. Depending on your class sizes, you might need a total of three-four class days (intro + presentations) to get the ball rolling.

Also, you’ll find that you’ll need to slim down your spring curriculum to make everything fit. I used to teach the full Odyssey to my freshmen, but I had to make some cuts and ended up slicing about half of the Odyssey chapters to make room for 20Time. The cuts were painful to me at the time, but SO WORTH IT in the end.

Hope you find a way to make this work in your classroom. It’s one of the best things I’ve ever brought to my classroom. 🙂

Laura, I have probably funded one of your children’s education with the units I’ve purchased from you already and you have made my first year of teaching SO much more enjoyable and effective for my students. I have thrived rather than just survived.

Now that I’m getting the hang of it, I follow them less verbatim and tweak them a little more for my kids and my style but the meat of what you’ve done has been my life raft this year! It’s been especially helpful since I took a roundabout route to teaching and am expecting my first child with my husband. Not having to prepare so much has saved me!

Thank you so much, this is 100% the best project you could’ve done for new teachers. In fact, I may purchase it for my maternity leave sub next year! So far, I have your Romeo and Juliet, Mythology, Of Mice and Men, and almost all your writing practice! Lifesavers!

Congratulations on your impending parenthood, Malory! Definitely the greatest adventure of my life. 🙂 Appreciate this note of support and I LOVE knowing that the materials I’ve built have helped you get your footing. Ideally, we all find our own style that fits our personalities and classroom communities as we get more experience, and I know how helpful it is to see how other teachers do things. Again, congrats on Baby Ford!!!

Hey Laura! I’m actually planning to introduce the project to my English 9 class this week! We have already talked about it a little bit, and a few of them have voiced wanting to spend more time working on their NaNoWriMo project that we worked on in November. A couple others mentioned starting a blog and/or vlog. One stated she was interested in doing either a genealogy project or learning more about specific aspects of her culture. Yay! I’m excited, but a little nervous. It is my first time doing this with my students. Our last day before spring break is Thursday, so for the next four days, I plan to replace our 10-ish min bell-ringer with the project’s formal intro, examples, and a class brainstorming session for those who need more ideas and encouragement. Their final speech will actually take the place of their final exam. We will have to shorten the process to about 7 weeks of work time, +1 week for the pitch when we return from spring break,and +1 week for planning and presenting our closing speeches, but I think we will still be okay. 🙂 Thank you so much for your help and support! Fingers crossed!

Also….I’ve been thinking about you and your project. April 6th is almost here! Sounds crazy, but I’m so excited! I might be as excited as you are relieved to be (almost) finished! 🙂 Is everything coming along as expected? I hope you are doing well…looking forward to hearing back from you sometime this week. Ttys -Tara

Tara! Great to hear from you and I’m psyched that you’ve found a way to tuck 20Time into your 4th quarter curriculum. I think a shortened 7-week work session timeframe is very doable and (hopefully!) a great way to keep your kids focused and productive all the way to summer break. My own 20Time project is rockin’ and rolling, for sure. I’ve hit a nice stride and March has turned out to be even more productive than I’d hoped. I think (*fingers crossed* over here, too) that I might even beat my April 6 deadline by a few days. We’ll see how this week’s spring break schedule treats me. No matter what, though…This. Is. Happening. 😉

Hey Laura! You are amazing! I have been sitting at my computer for hours reading and watching some of your 20Time info and really want to do it this year with my students. I know when you moved to Idaho, you went on block schedule and you have continued to do 20Time, but I cannot see how you adjusted the time. I have a version of block as well, with a schedule where I will see my odd classes for 3 days one week and 2 days the other. I was wondering if you found an effective way to get 20Time in, without it becoming 40 time. I’m already brainstorming on what my 20Time project might be, so you HAVE to help me find a way to have my students do it too 😉

Awesome, Kimberly! So glad you’re working to find a way to bring 20Time to your kids. Sliding everything to fit the A/B block was surprisingly easy. The 90-minute classes were much too long for kids to maintain focus on one project, so I made the last 45 minutes of the last class each week (always either a Thursday or Friday) serve as our work session day. Worked like a charm! Definitely check back in and let us know how it goes. I’ll also want to hear about your own project choice. The teacher project is one of my favorite pieces of the program. 🙂